Letter of the Week - Xx

This week is brought to you by the letter Xx.

 

Letter of the Week - Ww

This week is brought to you by the letter Ww.

Our Philosophy

At Creative Kids Center, our unique approach to early childhood education includes a *Reggio-inspired multi age classroom where children are respected and recognized as capable, competent and creative individuals. Nurturing the whole child is of utmost importance as we embrace both contemporary and traditional approaches to learning.

Creative Kids passionately strives to grow lifelong learners. In our responsive learning environment, activities are personalized according to the individual needs and unique strengths of each child.  Choices are encouraged. Learning is directed by child interest. Children are invited to explore and engage while utilizing all of their senses. Offering a flexible transition process tailored to the needs of the individual child allows us to follow the child’s pace. Our highly qualified staff collaborates and works together as a team in order to facilitate, support and encourage children during their formative years.

Additionally, we pride ourselves on offering a parent-friendly, affordable, and flexible program in a safe, comfortable environment. We genuinely care about our relationship with your child, your family and each other. 

Please call us today to schedule a visit. 


*Reggio is a philosophical approach rather than a standard curriculum.*

Newsletter - March 23-27, 2015

Welcome Spring!!! 

Spring was our theme for the week. We welcomed this beautiful season of re-birth and renewal with many fun spring time activities! Our spring reading list included How Do You Know It's Spring? (Allan Fowler), The Happy Day (Ruth Krauss), The Wind Blew (Pat Hutchins), and It's Spring (Samantha Berger & Pamela Chanko). We sure enjoy reading books more and more every day!!!

We diligently worked on our spring art projects. We sponge painted with purple and white for our April door decoration, made V is for Violet Vase pictures, continued painting tree branches and gluing pom-poms on them as well as created spring flower pictures.

Circle time was spent reviewing the calendar and weather, counting our friends, discussing the new spring season, explaining what happens in the spring for our weekly language experience chart, and conducting a windy experiment. Using a small fan, we predicted which items would or wouldn't “blow in the wind.”

Wednesday Class

Thursday Class

Additional activities this week included dinosaur play, kitchen center, sand table, science center (wind table), block center, table top (puzzles, writing practice, green play-dough and green gak).

Well, as usual, March has come in like the lion that it is and continues to stay that way.

Special News

We will have pajama day on Wednesday, April 1^st. Remember to wear your favorite pajamas to school!

Reminder

Next week is a 3-day week. Spring break begins Thursday, April 2^nd. We return to school on Monday, April 13^th (make-up snow day).

Have a “Springy” Weekend!!!

Sheri, Joyce, Fabi & Bethany

Letter of the Week - Vv

This week is brought to you by the letter Vv.

 What begins with the letter Vv?
 

Newsletter - March 16-20, 2015

Green was our theme during this third week of March.

We painted shamrocks at the easel with green and white paint! We also began painting twigs all different colors. Using our imagination, we created fabulous objects with green play-dough, shamrock cookie cutters and lots of green “loose parts” such as pipe cleaners, gems, beads, and craft sticks. So much green fun!

Additional activities this week included the sand table, kitchen center, block center and table top. During story time, we read some great books such as I am a Big Dinosaur (Francois Crozat), Clever Tom and the Leprechaun (Linda Shute), and as requested by Thomas, Two Little Trains (Margaret Wise Brown). On St. Patrick's Day, we read Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss) and had a fun green eggs and ham snack. It wasn't really green eggs and ham but rather a white chocolate wafer with a green M&M on top of a square pretzel. YUMMY!

Think Spring! Happy Weekend!

Sheri, Joyce, Fabi & Bethany

Letter of the Week - Uu

This week is brought to you by the letter Uu.

Weekly Newsletter - March 9-13, 2015

WHAT WE DID THIS WEEK

It was dinosaurs galore this week at Creative Kids.  And the dinos sure were a-stomping!!!  Our dinosaur reading list included The World of Dinosaurs (Melvin Berger), Story of Dinosaurs (David Eastman), Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones (Byron Barton), and The Dinosaur (Anna Milbourne & Mandy Field) as well as a book on CD, Dinosaur Pet (Marc Sedaka).  We also read and looked at many more dinosaur books on our own during book time!

Dinosaur art projects included dinosaur feet and sponge painting dinosaurs.  Since our letter of the week was T, we also made “T is for Tree.”

Circle time was spent reviewing the calendar and weather, counting our friends,  and creating a dinosaur anchor chart.  Thomas informed us that some dinosaurs are herbivores and some are carnivores. We also did the “Dino Pokey” and “Stegosaurus Hop.”

Additional activities this week included digging for dinosaurs in the sand table, block center (with dinosaurs), train tracks and table top (green play dough with what else, but dinosaurs)! 

We have our new assistant, Ms. Joyce with us now every Tuesday and Thursday and she jumped right in this week. 

Welcome back to Jacob. We're sure glad he's feeling better. We missed him last week.

We're looking forward to Monday when we will be welcoming two new friends, Stephanie and Caitlin!

Two Reminders:

1. Tonight is our Dr. Seuss P.J. Party from 6:30-9:30!
2. Wear green on Tuesday, March 17, 2015! 

Have a “Dino-mite” Weekend!!!

Sheri, Joyce, Fabi & Bethany

Letter of the Week - Tt

This week is brought to you by the letter Tt.

Newsletter - Week of March 2-6, 2015

WHAT WE DID THIS WEEK

March certainly came in like a lion this week! Hopefully we've seen the last of our snow days now.

We had an exciting week welcoming five new friends: Matthew, Kayleigh, Kendall, Liam and Maddy! We are so happy to have them join us! 

We welcomed in March by celebrating Dr. Seuss and the letter “Ss.” Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated so many fabulous children's books it was hard to choose which ones to read. We finally decided on The Cat in the Hat, The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, The Foot Book, and Dr. Seuss' ABC. We also read My S Book by Jane Belk Moncure.

Art projects included “S is for Snowman,” The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, thing 1 and 2 handprints as well as painting Cat in the Hat hats at the easel You can see some of our artwork on our front door! Oh yes, we also painted with snow! Now that was FUN!

Circle time was spent reviewing the calendar and weather as well as counting our friends. We made some interesting creations during table top with play dough, gemstones, craftsticks and pipecleaners. 

Happy 3rd Birthday to Jacob who shares his birthday with Dr. Seuss! He's been out sick this week. We sure hope he's feeling better.

We're looking forward to seeing our new assistant, Ms. Joyce next week!

Have a fabulous weekend!!!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Letter of the Week - Ss

This week is brought to you by the letter Ss.

Monthly Letter - March 2015

Dear Family:

Our preschool year is certainly breezing by! March, our breezy month, will bring a rustle of activities that are aimed at providing the children with skill builders that are sure to please. This delightful, breezy month is filled with lots of green fun and fantasy. The shamrock will be our shape for this month and of course, green is our color of the month!

March will begin with a Dr. Seuss celebration followed by a two week study on dinosaurs! We will be immersed in everything dinosaurs.

We will follow our dinosaur study with a unit on spring (it’s so very close!) which will also include wind and kites. (What would spring be without them?). This month is sure to “breeze” by.

Top o’ the mornin’ from preschool! 

Wishing you a marvelous March!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

P.S.  We will celebrate the “wearin’ of the green” on Monday, March 16th and Tuesday, March 17th. Please be sure to send your child to school wearing something green!

Weekly Letter - February 23-27, 2015

Dear Family,

It was all smiles this week as dental health was our main focus during this final fabulous week of February (also known as Dental Health Month).

We painted with toothbrushes and dental floss, painted a big tooth at the easel, discussed healthy foods to eat for strong, white teeth and read Your Smile Counts (Colgate-Palmolive Company), Moose’s Loose Tooth (Jacqueline A. Clarke) and The Tooth Book (Dr. Seuss). Songs included “This is the Way We Brush Our Teeth,” “Brush Your Teeth” and “The Toothbrush Pokey.”  After classifying healthy foods and items to keep our teeth happy and unhealthy foods that make our teeth sad, we made paper plate smiles. Our special snack included apple smiles. DELICIOUS! Check out all the pictures on our FB page!

Guess what?! We are 100 days smarter! We celebrated 100 days of school on Thursday and Friday. Thursday was our actual 100th day of school! We read The 100th Day of School (Angela Shelf Medearis), counted to 100, made 100 Days hats and placed 100 items into bottles in sets of 10. Ms. Sheri also sent home a special 100 days snack.

Our letter of the week was “R” so we read “My R Book” (Jane Belk Moncure), walked the letter R and created “R is for Rainbow” pictures.

Don’t forget to brush and floss to keep those smiles bright and shiny!

Happy weekend!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Letter of the Week - Rr

This week is brought to you by the letter Rr.

Newsletter - February 9-13, 2015

WHAT WE DID THIS WEEK

We finally had a full five day week! And a busy one it was!

Hearts and Valentines were in the air this week. During table top we traced hearts and cut them out, made love bugs by arranging the letters of our name in the correct order, played a math game with Hershey's kisses and of course, practiced writing our names. When some of our younger students practiced matching different colored hearts some of the older students also wanted in on the fun!

At circle, we reviewed name recognition and the calendar, observed the weather, counted our friends, learned our new letter of the week (Qq) and discussed the role of a mail carrier.

We read the books My Q Book (Jane Belk Moncure), Valentines for Everyone (Chris Gifford & Christine Ricci), Froggy's First Kiss (Jonathan London), and The Night Before Valentine's Day (Natasha Wing). Center time included block play, cars and trucks, housekeeping, and art.  In our art center, we painted at the easel on heart-shaped paper, made Q is for Quilt, created Valentine's cards for our families, and decorated our own Valentine's card holders.  We also danced to the "Valentine Hokey Pokey," played "Broken Hearts" and followed directions on heart cards!

On Thursday, we celebrated Sophia's 4th birthday! Thank you to Sophia's mommy for the yummy munchkins and Ms. Sheri's pink heart donut. Mmm, Mmm, good! We also had a small Valentine's Day celebration on Thursday and Friday. Thank you to everyone for sending in goodies for the children! They had a great time!

We were very excited to have Ms. Caitlin, Thomas' mother join us during class on Thursday. It was an impromptu parent co-op day! Ms. Caitlin was a big help with all the children. I would like to invite all parents/grandparents to help out in the classroom on a given day if you are interested. It certainly isn't a requirement but if you're curious about what we do all day, please let me know and we’ll be happy to have you join us.

We will soon begin our student star of the week program so be on the lookout for more information.

Additionally, I have not yet scheduled parent/teacher conferences. We are a small group and since I see you all on a daily basis and we are in constant contact I feel it isn’t a necessity at this time. That being said, if you have any concerns or even if you don't have concerns but would like to sit down with me to discuss your child's progress, please let me know and I'd be happy to oblige.

Reminder: No school next week. We are on winter break!
When we return we will begin our dental health unit.

Have a loving weekend & wonderful vacation!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Valentine's Day Celebration

Dear Family,

We will be having a small Valentine's Day celebration on Thursday and Friday, 2/12 and 2/13. If you would like to send in a special treat for the children, please feel free to do so.

Additionally, if you would like to send in Valentine’s cards please make sure you send in enough for the entire class. I have included a list of names for our students and the days they attend on the papers I sent home. We are a small group so please don’t feel you need to go out and buy Valentine’s. A home- made Valentine is just as special. They also don’t have to be addressed to a specific person if you chose not to do so. Either way is fine.

Just a reminder: we will be having our monthly P.J. theme party (Valentine theme, of course) on Friday night, 2/13/15 from 6:30-9:30. $5 includes pizza, snack, open play and lots of fun!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

With Love,

Sheri

Letter of the Week - Qq

This week is brought to you by the letter Qq.

Weekly Newsletter

WHAT WE DID THIS WEEK

February 2-6, 2015

It was another short week for our Creative Kids due to more winter weather! Ground hogs, shadows, community helpers and continuation of the letter Pp were the themes running through this very short week. We welcomed in February with many fun activities!

Table top activities included practicing our pre-writing and cutting skills. We're making more progress every day!

At circle, we reviewed name recognition and the calendar, observed the weather, counted our friends and learned about groundhogs. We sang some songs and read the book Barney & Baby Bop Go to the Doctor by Margie Larsen.

Center time included our usual block play, dramatic play in the kitchen (we love to cook!), cutting table and art. In our art center, we painted with bubble wrap as we began our February door mural.

Another busy week and another month gone by! Next week we'll be working on our Valentine’s! We will be having a small Valentine’s celebration on 2/12 and 2/13/15. More info to come!

Happy February!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Monthly Letter - February 2015

Dear Family:

February is going to be a busy month in preschool! We will continue with our community helpers and transportation units. We will also start the month by looking to see if our furry, underground friend sees his shadow. And, we’ll discuss and experiment with the concept of shadows.

Love will be in the air as we discuss how we can show our love to those who love us through caring and sharing. The children will be making something special to bring home to give to the special people in their lives.

Our two famous presidents will inspire our math and social studies readiness work. Hearts will be our shape of the month (of course), and pink and red will be our colors of the month!

We will also celebrate the 4th birthdays of both Andrew and Sophia!

Join in our month of celebrations by discussing with your child your family traditions and relationships, as well as what it means to be president!

Hope yours is a fabulous February!

Love from Preschool,

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Newsletter - January 26-30, 2015

This last week of January blasted us with a blizzard so it was a short week for our Creative Kids!

Table top activities include practicing pre-writing and scissor skills as well as working on matching and visual discrimination while completing puzzles.

At circle, we reviewed name and letter recognition as well as the calendar, observed the weather, counted our friends and read the following books: My P Book (Jane Belk Moncure), Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice (Steve Metzger) and Cuddly Dudley (Jez Alborough). Dudley doesn't like to be cuddled and prefers to play alone. But his sisters and brothers just can't resist cuddling him because he's so darn cute! We went on a penguin hunt searching for Dudley as our friends gave us clues (under, behind, in, on) and gave him a big cuddle once we found him.

We also learned all about penguins and watched a Scholastic video about different types of penguins. Ask me if penguins fly. Music and movement activities included Penguin Play and songs.

Center time included dramatic play in the kitchen, cars and trucks, and snow fun in our sensory bin. In our art center, we made penguins out of the letter P, painted a melted snowman picture, and also painted penguins.

Our new friend, Jacob joined us this week. He will come to school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We're very excited to welcome him to Creative Kids Center!

Another busy (although short) week and another month gone by!

It's been “snow” much fun!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Letter of the Week - Pp

This week is brought to you by the letter Pp. P is for Penguin!

Newsletter - January 19-23, 2015

What a great week to celebrate the letter O!

Table top activities included pre-writing skills practice, color sorting and a new “Who Am I” puzzle. At circle, we reviewed name recognition and the calendar, observed the weather, counted our friends and read the books My O Book (Jane Belk Moncure), Guess Who (Margaret Miller) and Barney, What Will I Be When I Grow Up? (Maureen Balvassori). During centers we played with our cars and trucks, made tall towers and other designs with blocks, cooked in the kitchen and worked on Octopus Math. Art projects included O is for Olaf and making owls out of the letter O (and sneaking some Cheerios to eat).

On Friday, we celebrated Candice's 4^th birthday. Happy Birthday, Candice! And thank you to Candy's mom for bringing in those delicious pink and white cupcakes!

Don't forget our Frozen theme P.J. party on Friday night, 1/23 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Hope to see you there!

Happy weekend!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Letter of the Week - Oo

This week is brought to you by the letter Oo.

Newsletter - January 12-16, 2015

It may have been cold outside, but things were sure heating up inside Creative Kids while we continued our winter theme activities!

Our letter of the week was Nn. We read My N Book (Jane Belk Moncure) & learned the sign for the letter Nn. We had a blast playing with the noodle sensory bin hunting for all of the letter N’s hidden in the noodles!

We listened to the book on tape, Frozen Noses (Jan Carr) and read The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats). We made a chart listing what we know about snow, read the book, Snow (Marion Dane Bauer), then added to the chart what we learned about snow from reading the book.

At circle time, we began a new activity where we tell Ms. Sheri if the letter of the week is in our name. If it is, we get to wear the special alphabet star necklace. Allison, Andrew & Candice all have “N” in their names so they got to wear the “N” necklaces this week. We also reviewed the calendar and weather, counted the children present at circle, had fun making snow angels, and sang many snowy songs and finger plays.  We also discussed Dr. Martin Luther King and how he tried to get people who were doing wrong things to stop. And we watched this cool video about him!



We sang “Happy Birthday Dr. King” and “Let’s Be Friends.”

Let’s Be Friends (Tune: “London Bridges”)

Let’s be friends with one another, one another, one another,

Let’s be friends with one another, Let’s be friends today.

I can wave to a friend, wave to a friend, wave to a friend,

I can wave to a friend, Let’s be friends today.

 (Other verses: laugh with a friend, hug a friend, smile at a friend.)

In the art center, we decorated the letter N with numbers because N is for Numbers! We worked on a class project making our snowman names, which also helped us practice writing our names. We painted a snowy day picture using white paint, silver glitter & salt & put together a Martin Luther King, Jr. Brotherhood Book.

Reminder: School is closed on Monday, January 19th in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. We’ll see you all on Tuesday, January 20th.


Looking Ahead

Next week’s letter of the week will be Oo.

We’re looking forward to celebrating Candice’s 4th birthday next Friday!

Note: Watch out for news regarding a special upcoming event. Hint: You won’t have to dress us when we get up in the morning!

Enjoy the three-day weekend!

Letter of the Week - Nn

This week is brought to you by the letter Nn.

Letter of the Week - Mm

This week is brought to you by the letter Mm.

Newsletter - January 5-9, 2015

Welcome Back!

This week we easily eased right back into the routine after our wonderful holiday vacation!

Our letter of the week was Mm. We read My Mm Book (Jane Belk Moncure), learned the sign for the letter Mm & practiced the “mouse” yoga pose.

In keeping with the “Mm” theme, it was mittens galore this week! We read The Mitten (Jan Brett), One Mitten (Kristine O’Connell George) and The Mitten Tree (Candace Christiansen). Our own Candice did mention that she had the same name as the author. We listened to the book on tape, Three Little Kittens (Lorianne Siomades) and played a mitten match file game & mitten shape file game. We went on a word hunt, searching for animal words from The Mitten that were hung around the classroom, then tracing the words once we found them.

During circle time, we sang our favorite songs and reviewed skills such as name recognition, calendar and weather. We also read Here We Go ‘Round the Year (Jane Belk Moncure), which is a book about the months of the year before we were introduced to the new month of January & the brand new year 2015. We also discussed our new season of winter. Brrrr! It’s cold outside!

Tabletop activities included sorting materials, pegboards, new transportation puzzles and dress-up people. At center time, we played in the kitchen, used the cars/trucks and blocks, worked in the writing center by tracing a path from Nicki to his mittens, practiced our fine motor skills while q-tip painting and completed some monster math to reinforce our counting skills. During science we read The Mystery of Magnets (Melvin Berger) and explored what materials a magnet will and will not attract.

In the art center, we began preparing our January door decoration by painting with watercolors on coffee filters to make snowflakes, decorated the letter M with M&M’s and marshmallows (& ate quite a few), made hand print mittens & painted mittens with marshmallows (of course, we ate some of these too).

We also celebrated Allison’s 4th birthday on Wednesday. Allison’s family sent in delicious cupcakes, homemade by her grandma!

A great big thank you to all of the families who joined us for our “milk and cookie” holiday open house.  All of the cookies and snacks were delicious!!!

We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays.

HAPPY 2015!!!

Have a warm and cozy weekend!

Monthly Letter - January 2015

Dear Family,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The holidays may be over, but not the learning and fun in preschool.  “The World Around Me” and “Community and Transportation” are the themes for this month.  Preschoolers will be introduced to community helpers and various transportation vehicles, as well as participate in activities that include role playing, movement, and vocabulary building.

In addition, we will also be celebrating the beauty of winter and the snow that comes along with this wonderful season.  Our math, social studies, and science readiness projects will all relate to this winter theme. Circles (snowballs) and octagons (stop signs) are our shapes of the month and blue and white are our colors of the month. Join in our fun by asking your child to tell you about what he/she learned in school each day.

If you have not already done so, please be sure to send in an extra change of clothing appropriate for the cold weather, as well as extra underclothes.  Parents must also supply diapers and wipes if your child requires changing during the school day.  Please be sure to label these as well.

Thank you for your continued cooperation.

Here’s to a joyful January!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany